Need advice before finalizing cabinet order

11 years ago

Dear all,

I have to make the final decision on this cabinet by tomorrow to catch the August special sale. I have worked through many iterations to come up with the attached design. The kitchen is basically a U-shape with 163" bottom and 148" sides. On the left side there is a 72" window.

I initially decided to go with the U-shape to have the pantry cabinet and the oven-microwave combo. However, after looking at many pictures on this forum and online, I realized that an L-shape kitchen with the right wall open and a bigger island is more appealing to me.

One problem is that I already purchased a microwave-oven combo and an induction cooktop. I can't think of a way to fit them in without the cabinets on the right wall. Any creative solutions?

Should I

1. go with the existing plan? Any additional suggestions?

2. start over with a L-shape plan and buy a slide in stove

3. somehow fit the wall oven and microwave combo to a L-shape

Many many thanks for your help,

Jane

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Comments (6)

herbflavor
11 years ago
wow: that's a lot to advise you to do/not do in one fell swoop. These are major adjustments-essentially re-doing the whole kitchen. Have you laid out how it could line up in the L with island? that's what you have to do, really. I'd forget about the August sale if this is really nagging at you-the economy is faltering-there will be more sales.Get your plan the way you want it.
jjnv
Original Author
11 years ago
Herbflavor,

Thank you so much for your advice. I told the dealer I need time to consider the alternate layout even though I know it means I could miss the sale.

I went to the Home Depot today and got quote on both layout. Wow, the HD quote is about $2k less than what I was about to pay. You saved me lots of money.

Here is the new layout, it is another $2k less than the original plan. But I did lose some cabinets. Please help me decide which plan I should go with.

HD has a super sale that ends Sep 5. I feel like I am ready to order once I decide on the layout.
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STOP! Have you posted your layout here to check to see if it's optimal? The whole point of doing a kitchen redo is to have a better kitchen than you started with, not the same old layout with new cabinets. Have you measured your space yourself and then measured the layout to see if it uses the correct measurements and will actually fit the space? There's a post on here today that someone discovered their cabinet person was using the wrong measurement by four feet! Has the contractor you will be using also done the same? Contractors can sometime spot potential headaches that homeowners would not. Are there any walls or soffits coming down? They are usually there for a reason. Be sure you know what that reason is. Plumbing or electrical or HVAC changes that may happen? Those can impact the final design if you hear those awful magic words, " Look what they did here. That will have to be fixed." Have those happened yet to be able to have the room's final measurements? Sometimes plans need to be changed in midstream. If you've already ordered cabinets, you will be less open to solutions that may need to happen to fix the problem you've discovered. Ordering now for a project that will not take place for a couple of months can be a very BAD idea unless you've been almost obsessive during the planning stage. There's nothing worse than having to pay a restocking fee and order a different sized cabinet because you changed your mind or didn't realize that that soffit was in place to hide an awkward pipe. NEVER order cabinets until you have vetted your layout with multiple people and have measured it out in the space with multiple people and have performed "exploratory surgery" on anything that will have changes to it. You can be caught out with thousands of dollars of unusable cabinets that will cost you 30% just for the company to take them back.
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I would very seriously consider closing off the doorway to the entry hall and making that a pantry area. Your traffic pattern would not be that much further to come into the kitchen from the DR and it would help with storage tremendously. If it were accessible from the hall instead of the kitchen (a common older home scenario) then you could have the range cabinet run extend all the way to the fridge wall. I'd also explore moving the door to the powder room to the DR. Neither the KIT nor the DR is ideal, but I think the DR door would be better for most people. What is the narrow door to the left on the range run? It's not shown there on the floor plan, and it's cutting into your storage for that wall. With the overhead view to see what's what, I'd ditch that lonesome cabinet between the bathroom and the exterior entry. It's in your traffic path and makes you have to make the island narrower there. Take that room and add it to the island instead. If it's intended as dish storage, and I can see where it would be convenient to have dish storage there, then the additional cabinets in the island can work for that and you can keep your dishes there. Symmetry on an island that faces the cooking area will never be seen or appreciated. Instead, focus more on function and making it work better. I'm with the others that the DW and trash needs to be swapped. If you closed off that hall door to make a pantry and shifted the whole range bit down, that would give you plenty of room for dish storage right behind the DW on the range wall run.
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jjnv
Original Author
11 years ago
Here is a better image of the original layout done by Home Depot.
mrsjoe
11 years ago
Maybe others could chime in if I'm wrong, but I've been looking at cabinets for about 9 months now, and it seems to me that Home Depot frequently has sales and most of the time they seem to end being about equivilent even if the specifics are different. For example, during one sale, you might get a free sink base and free hardware plus an additional $500 off, and another you might get free upgrade to Cherry or something, but in the end you save about the same.

I have also heard of people "missing the sale" but then going in a little while after and requesting it and still getting it.

The bottom line is that I'm not sure that I would rush a huge decision like this just to try to catch a Home Depot sale that will probably repeat. It's possible it's a one-time smoking deal, but not likely.

Have you shopped anywhere besides Home Depot?
herbflavor
11 years ago
What part of the home is the "opening" of the kitchen facing? I think perhaps the newer plan has a shortage of counter on the perimeter: therefore, make an ample sized square island without the bookcase on the ends[is that what those pieces are?] You could use the frig/range side as well as the sink side with just a pivot and have good counter available from both positions.Also, you can add some drawers below island if needed to compensate what you have dropped from the U kitchen[see how everything balances out-so it's just personal preference really]....and the price will climb again,but I would not do the L without an island that really works well in the space[features,looks,sized right].
jjnv
Original Author
11 years ago
The kitchen opens to the dining area. The house is mostly open with the dining opens to the rest of the living space.

For some reason, I can't post even links to the pictures I posted before. I included a link to an older thread with pictures of the kitchen and dining area.

I started to realize as much as I love the openness of the L shape, it is probably not going to work especially with the oven/microwave combo. I start to think if I should sell the combo and buy a slide in range oven. That is certainly an option. But I will need space for the microwave any way.

I am leaning toward the U-shape design.

I'd appreciate all comments.

Here is a link that might be useful: Old thread discussing the design option

Need advice before finalizing cabinet order

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